Alex Lifeson Quotes

I never thought a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland or anywhere else was a good idea.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is marketing. You've got a bunch of faceless people in a back room who trademark a name that sounds very official. Well, if you had thought of it first, you would have been the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a joke - the fact that Madonna is in before Rush and Kiss. Those two bands have influenced so many groups and people other than in metal.

For me, Memphis has always been a city that holds a great deal of meaning and also leads me to a lot of thinking. Besides Sun Studio, which helped put rock n' roll on the map all over the world, the legendary Stax Studio also called Memphis home.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame traditionally has had a management style that is very supportive of American talent, first and foremost, over everything else. And I think that's right and proper.

I've been urged by people forever to try and start a real Rock Hall of Fame. I've had some very, very preliminary discussions about doing it. Obviously, I can't do it myself, but there are a lot of people interested in that.

Most of our great influences were male rockers, like Led Zeppelin.

I don't think there should be a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, period.

When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame decided to open up the voting beyond their inner circle, to the actual fans, that's when I think everything changed.

I am one of the biggest Laura Nyro fans. I still listen to that stuff incessantly. Laura Nyro does not belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Songwriter Hall of Fame? Absolutely.

It's a weird thing to have a Hall of Fame for rock. It's weird that I spent years worshiping the Cure, and here's the Chili Peppers, and then one gets in one doesn't. It's ridiculous. In my heart of hearts, it means nothing to me, but I do understand it means a lot to other people. It creates positivity.

I'm not a big fan of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's just a personal thing, not an ego thing.

I had this image before Boy George, before the Beatles, before the Rolling Stones.

Is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that important to me? No. Is it something I've aspired towards? No.

So I wouldn't see Wings as a band that would go into the Hall of Fame, to be honest.

You see a documentary, you want to see it on Aerosmith or Jon Bon Jovi or Kiss, a band that's been established and sold millions of records and done something notable.

It'd be really great to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame mature. It's a good facility there in Cleveland. I like the museum a lot.

The Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame was a great idea when it started, but I think they ought to close it, I think it's full.

Chuck Berry told me if it wasn't for Louis Jordan, he wouldn't have probably ever even got into music. That Louis Jordan changed everything and made him want to become a musician.

I came up in a time when Springsteen, the Stones, Dylan, and the Beatles were still dominant. For every magazine cover with a new band, there were five covers with one of those guys.

Once you establish a foundation of knowing what the greatest recording artists of all time were... Wouldn't you want your kids to know this stuff?

But Patsy, she was a great, great girl. And Brenda Lee is a wonderful person, and her mama Grace. I've known those folks for years and years and years.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is not a public democratic organization; it's a private club basically. It's like a private golf club and they decide who they're going to let in the club.

I enjoy looking at old photos of some of my favorite rock icons, but also get inspired from the younger bands that are coming up and really creating their own style, their own image.

The trouble is now, with rock'n'roll and stuff, it gets so big that it loses what once upon a time was a magnificent thing, where it was special and quite elusive and occasionally a little sinister and it had its own world nobody could get in.